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Dogs from Texas moved to NJ shelters after Hurricane Harvey

Joshua Jongsma, @jongsmjo
Published 7:26 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2017

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St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center welcomed nearly 80 dogs to Morristown Municipal Airport from San Antonio, Texas. It is the first animal flight to the Northeast out of the area devastated by Hurricane Harvey.
Staff video by Bob Karp

One of the dogs rescued from the Texas floods caused by Hurricane Harvey arrive at Morristown Municipal Airport in Hanover on Tuesday.(Photo: Marko Georgiev/NorthJersey.com)

HANOVER - A kennel of 78 dogs made the voyage across the country to escape the ravages of Hurricane Harvey and seek shelter in New Jersey and surrounding states on Tuesday.

The dogs arrived at Morristown Municipal Airport around 10 p.m. to find a group of volunteers from St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in Madison waiting for them.

“I think a lot of us had tears in our eyes when the animals pulled up and the plane pulled up and we heard the barking,” St. Hubert’s President and CEO Heather Cammisa said. “It’s really meaningful. It’s great to see a lot of shelters come together to help the community.”

The dogs of various breeds, sizes and ages were already in Texas shelters before Hurricane Harvey dropped more than 50 inches of rain in the Houston area. Relocating those dogs allowed the pets displaced during the hurricane to stay closer to home and help their owners find them, Cammisa said.

A white dog named Rosco was the first off the plane on Tuesday followed by the other 77 canines. The dogs were kept in their crates for safety reasons as they were transported out of the plane and into vans to go to various shelters in and out of New Jersey.

The dogs will go to 12 different shelters in addition to St. Hubert's:

Monmouth County SPCA in Eatontown

Animal Alliance in Belle Mead

Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees

Delaware Humane Association in Wilmington, Delaware

Father John’s Animal House in Lafayette

Humane Society for Greater Nashua in New Hampshire

Monmouth County SPCA in Eatontown

Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter in East Hanover

New Hampshire SPCA in Stratham, New Hampshire

Somerset County Animal Shelter in Bridgewater

SPCA Serving Erie County in West Seneca, New York

Toronto Humane Society in Toronto, Canada

Voorhees Animal Orphanage in Voorhees

Nora Parker, a goodwill ambassador for St. Hubert’s, said the dogs mainly slept during the trip that took most of the day but woke up excited once they landed. The flight from San Antonio, Texas, to Morristown included a stop in Tennessee to refuel.

Parker said they were “on standby” to help since Hurricane Harvey came into the forecast and that many people have expressed interest in assisting the animals.

“We’re proud that so many people are asking what they can do to help,” she said. “We know this will bring a lot of adopters in because we all feel so helpless here. But being a coastal state we all know when people stepped up and helped us after [Superstorm] Sandy so we’ll be there for Texas.”

The dogs will be available for adoption along with the other animals at St. Hubert’s and the partnering shelters. For adoption information, visit sthuberts.org or call 973-377-7094.